Today is the 13th year I’m posting about St. Louis’ Dr. Martin Luther King Drive — formerly Franklin & Easton Avenues. These streets were official renamed almost 45 years ago, on February 17, 1972.

As in the past dozen years, there are some bright spots:

The former medical office ion the NW corner of MLK & 14th has been vacant the last few years but it looks like someone is preparing to reuse the building which was built in 2001.Just West of Jefferson I noticed on-street parking spaces are in front of a bus stop for the #94. Parking cars between a bus stop and the bus means the bus drover must find another place to pickup/drop off wheelchair passengers such as myself.Across the street a former bar & restaurant that had burned is now gone.In September the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) opened a museum at the location where the union was founded 125 years before. Click image for news story on the opening.Another view of IBEW’s Henry Miller Museum — click the image for the official website. Haven’t visited yet — couldn’t find hours, admission price, or accessibility information online.A year ago, January 2016, the building was barely a shell.New senior housing called Vandeventer Place, at 4232 Dr. Martin Luther King. A decade ago the St. Louis chapter of the AIA wanted to build a farmers;’ market on this cite, but that project never got pff the drawing boards.The corner storefront on the SW corner with Taylor is now gone.Just West of Union is what’s left pf a 3-story house I’ve watched slow;y deteriorateHow the building above looked 4 years agoThis building had a big fire a few years ago…but it holds on.Friendly Temple Baptist Church is a major land owner in the area. though mostly surface parking. One building at Belt is being remodeled to open a bank branch.The banner reads “Coming Summer 2016”, click image for February 2016 news story.One of my favorite buildings in St. Louis survived another year.The Wellston Loop trolley building is also a survivor, though it is looking rather sadThe building was fenced off in August 2016, click image for history

The abandonment in the neighborhoods on either side of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive make the task of revitalizing this corridor all but impossible.

Every time we have a mass shooting in America I’m reminded the rest of the world doesn’t have this same problem. How can we have such a major problem but nobody else does? They have firearms, are not immune to mental illness, play the same video games, etc. After the ...

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